Composite shingle



April 16, 1968 A. A. CHALMERS ETAL. 3,377,762

COMPOS ITE SHINGLE 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Aug. 26, 1965 INVENToRs TTOEYS A..A. CHALMERS ETAL 3,377,762

April 16, v1968 COMPOSITE SHINGLE Filed Aug.v 26, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2United States Patent O ABS'I'RACT F THE DISCLOSURE A composite stripshingle comprises a saturated felt and asphalt base about three feetlong and one foot wide, with a thin sheet aluminum sheathe over thelower approximately half of the ibase. The lower edge of the base issubstantially thicker than the upper edge. The lower edge of the metalis bent around the lower edge of the base and reversely folded, to forma thick butt edge having a thickness of about 1A; inch. The lower edgeof the shingle is notched at about one foot intervals by cutting of boththe metal sheathe and the base. The resulting notches break up thecontinuity of the shadow line at the thick lower edge. The metal isindented but not cut above each notch to simulate the edges of adjacentindividual shingles. Additional means such as a strip of self-sealingadhesive with a release tape are provided at the upper edge of the metalsheathe to hold down the lower edge of the next higher shingle in orderto resist wind lift. A mechanical interlock may instead be used.

This invention relates to roofing, and more particularly to compositeshingles of the strip shingle type.

Strip` shingles of the asphalt-saturated felt-base type are commonlyused, but lack a rich heavy appearance because they are very thin at theexposed lower or butt edge. It has heen proposed to make strip shinglesof formed sheet metal, in which case a thick butt edge is readilyprovided, but such shingles are not good for sound and heat insulation(although satisfactory for the reflection of radiant heat). Moreover,many` special fittings are needed for Valleys and corners, etc. lt hasalso been proposed to make a strip shingle which is a composite ofsaturated felt and metal, thus combining the advantages of both. Thegeneral object of the present invention is to improve such compositeshingles.

A further object is to avoid the need for special fittings when applyingthe shingles to a roof, and for this purpose sheet aluminum may be usedwhich is light enough to be sheared, or to be severed by first scoringwith a knife. However, the metal is nearly filled with a substantialthickness of the saturated felt, resulting in a heavy solid shingle.

Still another object is to design the strip shingle for triple overlap,the felt base being made much wider than the metal, and so wide thatthere is a thickness of three strip shingles at the nailing lines. Thisprovides a weather tight roof without requiring a tar paper base roofbeneath the shingles.

Strip shingles are economical to manufacture and apply, but it isdesired to simulate the appearance of the more expensive individualshingles, and for this purpose it has already been suggested to indentand darken the strip shingle at intervals to represent the edges ofadjacent individual shingles. However, in actual practice the simulationhas not been successful, and I find that this is so because there is anunbroken shadow line at the butt edge. An important object of thepresent invention therefore is to break up the shadow line along thebutt edge, and this is done by notching the butt edge at appropriateintervals.

Still another object is to lock the metal sheath to the "ice felt baseat the butt edge and also at the notch, and for this purpose the feltbase is notched, but the metal is slit and folded around the felt basein the notch.

A still further object of the invention is to prevent wind lift. Thedanger of wind lift is reduced by the relatively heavy construction andweight of the shingle, and in addition we provide means at the upperedge of the metal sheath to hold down the lower portion of the nexthigher strip shingle. In one form this means is simply a selfsealingadhesive strip, preferably preliminarily provided with a release tapewhich is readily peeled off before ap4 plying the next higher stripshingle.

In another form of our invention the shingles are mechanicallyinterlocked, and for this purpose the reversely bent lower edge of themetal sheath is used as a hook, and the upper edge of the metal sheathis reversely folded downwardly to act as a lip which receives the hook.Nailing tabs are provided, preferably and most economically by excisingtabs behind the lip and turning them upward to receive nails which arelocated above the lip.

Ideally, the felt base should have a thick butt edge and should taperupward, but in present practice it is easier to use standard saturatedfelt which is readily commercially available, typically the so-called 30pound felt which has a thickness of about 1/16 inch. In accordance witha feature and object of the present invention two such strips of fullwidth are adhesively secured together, and a third narrow strip isadhesively secured at the lower edge to thicken the lbutt edge. Themetal sheath may be folded to provide a butt edge which is one quarterinch thick, and its upward or reversely folded edge at the back may beclenched agaisnt the felt -base even though the latter is somewhat lessin thickness.

To accomplish the foregoing objects, and other more specific objectswhich will hereinafter appear, our invention resides in the compositestrip shingle elements and their relation one to another, as arehereinafter more particularly described in the following specification.The specication is accompanied Iby drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a small piece ofroof covered with the present shingle;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of a single strip shingle;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken approximately on the line 33 of FIG.2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section taken approximately on the line4-*4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 6--6 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a vertical section through a. modified form of the inventionin which the successive shingles are mechanically interlocked;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary elevation drawn to reduced scale and showing ashingle arranged for mechanical interlock;

FIG. 9 is a section taken approximately on the line 9--9 of FIG. 8 andshowing a mechanical interlock somewhat dilferent from that shown inFIG. l;

FIG. l() is a schematic section explanatory of one way to provide thefelt base; and

FIG. 11 is a similar schematic section showing another way to providethe `felt hase.

Referring to FIG. l, the rooting simulates the appearance of individualshingles 12, having a relatively thick exposed butt edge l, the latterbeing interrupted by notches 16. The strip shingles are indented anddarkened above each notch as indicated at 18, and the strips are laid instaggered formation, as is usual in roofing.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 through 6 of the drawings the strip shinglecomprises a saturated felt ybase 20 which is substantially longer thanwide. In the specific case shown in FIG. 2 the strip shingle is threefeet long and one foot wide, and it has notches 16 at intervals of onefoot. The shingle further comprises a thin sheet metal sheath 22disposed over somewhat more than the lower half of the felt base Z0. Theexposure (FIG. 1) is iive inches out of the twelve inch width. The loweredge of the metal is bent around the lower edge of the base, as shown at14, and then reversely at Z4, thus forming the desired thick butt edge14, which may be about onequarter inch thick or more.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the base 20 is cut away at the notches 16, butthe metal sheath 22 is not similarly cut away and instead is slit ateach side of the notch and bent around the edge of the base in thenotch, as is shown at 26, 28. Thus the metal is bound to the base at thenotches as well as at the lower edge of the shingle.

- Some of the metal may `be notched or cut away, if desired, but enoughmetal is left for the folded parts 26 and 28.

In the specific form illustrated the metal sheath covers the lower sixand three-eighths inches of the felt base, leaving ve and ve-eighthsinches of felt base above the metal. Nails are driven -below the upperedge of the metal, at locations indicated at 30 in FIG. 2. Thesubstantial width of the felt base makes the resulting roof weathertight because the nailing of the next higher shingle goes through thebase of the lower shingle, and at the nailing line there is a thicknessof three shingles. This will be seen in FIG. 3 in which the nail 32 ofthe shingle shown in solid lines, passes through the felt base 34 of thelower shingle shown in broken lines, and is covered by the lower portionof the next higher shingle 36 also shown in broken lines. This is shownagain at the top of FIG. 3 in which nail 38 passes through two Shinglesand is protectively covered by the lower part of a third shin-gle 40.

The metal sheath is preferably sheet aluminum, and it may range inthicknesses from say 0.005 inch to 0.024 inch, and preferably has athickness of say 0.008 inch. The aluminum may be utility grade sheetaluminum. It is preferably embossed to lgive it a wood grain finish, asis suggested at 42 in FIGS. 1 and 2. This finish when used is used overthe entire surface except the indentations 18.

The aluminum is indented above each notch as shown at 18 in FIGS. 2 and5, and the indentation is preferably darkened to better simulate acrevice between the edges of adjacent individual shingles. At the endsof the strip there are half width notches 44, and indentations 46 ofhalf width, so that a uniform appearance is maintained where the stripshingles abut end to end. As is clearly shown in FIG. 5, the indentation18 extends into the base a distance much less than the thickness of thebase.

Ideally the felt base could be manufactured with a thick lower edge, andwith a thickness which tapers upward toward the top edge of the base.This may be done later. However, such a felt base is not commerciallyavailable at present, and it is therefore preferred to use sheets ofstandard saturated asphalt felt. The so-called 30 pound asphalt felt isreadily available, and has a thickness of about 1/16 inch. We employ twosheets 50 and S2 of full width, and a third sheet 54 which is muchnarrower than the two main sheets, and which is located at the loweredge of the shingle.

All three sheets are preferably adhesively secured together, preferablyby means of an epoxy adhesive. The butt edge 14 provided by the bentmet-al is preferably a full quarter inch in thickness, even though theassembled illustrated Ibase is somewhat less in thickness. The reverselybent edge `24 is readily clenched or crimped inward to bite against andto grip the felt base, as shown in FIG. 3. The sheet ymetal also may beand preferably is adhesively secured to the base, and here again asuitable weather-resistant epoxy adhesive may be used. If desired, afourth narrow strip could be used, and in such case the third stripcould be wider than the fourth, to better approach the theoreticaldesired taper.

When using standard saturated felt base the base may be built up indifferent ways. In FIG. 11 it comprises two wide strips and 52 and anarrow third strip 54, as previously described, but FIG. 10 shows theuse of a single wide strip which provides a back layer 60, and isreversely folded at 62 to provide a front layer 64, and then again isreversely folded at the bottom edge to provide a narrow third layer 66.In still another form the back layer may lbe one piece, and the frontlayer 6ft and the narrow part 66 may be formed of another wider piecewhich is reversely folded at the bottom edge. This has the advantage ofsomewhat thickening the bottom edge. In all cases the layers 'may beadhesively secured to one another, and to the metal sheath which isindicated at 22.

The illustrated shingle resists wind lift because of its relativelyheavy construction, but it is preferred to provide additional means atabout the upper edge of the metal sheath, to hold down the lower edge ofthe next higher strip shingle. In simplest form this comprises a stripof self-sealing adhesive, and such a strip is shown at in FIGS. 2, 3 and4 of the drawing. The strip here illustrated is about an inch in width,and straddles the top edge of the metal sheath. For convenience it isinitially masked or protected by a release strip 72, this stri-p beingreadily peeled off when laying the roof. The adhesive used is one whichsoftens under sun heat.

It should be mentioned that for clarity of illustration the thickness ofthe adhesive has been exaggerated in the drawing, and also the releasestrip has been shown in position, and therefore a gap or spacing existsbetween the exposed butt edge of one shingle and the face of the nextlower shingle, whereas in practice the shingles lie flat against oneanother, that is, the butt edge 14 in FIG. 3 would lie against theshingle 74; the butt edge of shingle 36 would lie against the metalsheath 22; and the butt edge of shingle 4t) would lie against shingle36.

If desired, the additional means to prevent wind lift may be mechanicalinstead of adhesive, and referring to FIG. 7 the reversely bent loweredge 80 of metal sheath 82 acts as a hook, while the upper edge 84 ofthe metal sheath 82 is reversely folded downwardly to act as a lip toreceive the similar hook 86 of the metal sheath 88 of the next highershingle. The felt base here illustrated is formed as before of two widestrips 90 and 92 and one narrow strip 94, of standard saturated felt,'but it will be recalled that the butt edge 96 has a width of one-fourthinch and therefore is wider than the base, thus providing clearance atthe hook 80, to receive the lip 98 of the sheath 100 of the next lowershingle. In this respect the construction differs from what is shown atthe lower edge in FIGS. 3 and 4 in that there is no crimping orindenting to bite into the felt base. Moreover in this structure themetal edge is preferably reversely folded as indicated at 102 and 104,to somewhat stilren and strengthen the metal, and also to reduce anypossi-bility of injury to those working with the shingles.

With a mechanical interlock the nails preferably are driven above theinterlock, as shown by the nails 106 in FIG. 7. For this purpose theshingle is preferably provided with metal nailing tabs indicated at 1%8.These are preferably excised behind the lip and turned upward. The tabsmay be located at aspacing of say six inches, as indicated at 110 inFIG. 8, which has similar nailing tabs, although shown on a somewhatdifferent shingle.

FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate a modification in which the hook and lip aremore elaborately formed. Referring to FIG. 9 theA hook part 112 issomewhat reversely bent, and the lip 114 has a roiled edge or eye 116,so that the parts 112 and 116 interlock. This interlock requires cutting away of some of the asphalt base, as indicated at 118, and it istherefore preferred to use the arrangement of FIGS. 7 which is simplerto manufacture; does not require cutting away the base; and providesadequate interlock.

The tabs 103 and 110 preferably have nail holes or slots pre-punchedtherethrough. The shingle of FIG. 2 may have prepunched nail holes, butit is preferred to merely indent the metal at 30 to show the preferredlocation of the nails. A nail may be driven through the metal, with aresulting tight fit of the metal and of the asphalt felt around theshank of the nail. The roofer may drive a nail elsewhere when necessaryor desired, but the indentations 30 serve as a guide for normal nailing.In FIG. 2 there are seven nails for each strip. The strips `are offsetor staggered when nailing the same.

Although shown vertically in FIGS. 3, 4 and 9, the shingle is intendedfor roofing, and is used at an angle, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 7.

-When using sheet aluminum having a thickness of 0.008 inch the shinglemay be cut by means of shears, or by scoring and breaking the metal andthen cutting the felt. In this way shingles may be fitted by the rooferwhile roofing, and this eliminates the need for special sizes, and forspecial fittings for valleys and corners and the like.

In manufacture, the sheet aluminum may be prelimin` arily painted andembossed with a wood grain embossing, and then may be given second andthird coats of paint. Baked enamel may be used, for long life. Thefabrication of the shingle may be continued with the notching andindenting previously referred to. The indentation and notch are coatedwith black paint, or with a dark color, e.g. a very dark brown for abrown shingle, or a very dark green for a green shingle, etc.

It is believed that the construction and method of use of our improvedstrip shingle, as well as the advantages thereof, will be apparent fromthe foregoing detailed description. The shingle provides a weather tightroof without requiring a tar paper base roof therebeneath, although suchtar paper base may be used if desired. The roof is weathertight becausethe felt base is so wide that there is a triple overlap of the shingles,there being an exposure of only five inches out of the twelve inchwidth. The labor cost is low and is comparable to asphalt roofing.Special accessory fittings are not needed. The shingle combines theadvantages of asphalt roofing and metal roofing, for it provides goodsound and heat insulation, and also heat reflection. The thick butt edgehas an attractive appearance, and the notching of the edge breaks up thecontinuity of the shadow line formed when the sun shines on the roof,thus simulating individual shingles in contrast with strip shingles.

Although I have referred to the base as being asphalt saturated felt, itwill be understood that other suitable materials may be used, such assoft fiber board, fiber glass mat, wood, and some of the foamedplastics. The adhesive need not be epoxy, and an asphalt type adhesivemay be used. Although we have described the shingles for roofing it maybe used also as siding.

It will be understood that while we have shown and described ourinvention in several preferred forms, changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention as sought to be defined in thefollowing claims.

We claim:

1. A strip shingle comprising a solid composition base which issubstantially longer than wide, the lower edge of the base being muchthicker than the upper edge of the base, said base tapering in thicknessfrom the lower edge to the upper edge, a thin sheet metal sheath overthe lower approximately half of the base, the lower metal edge beingbent around the thick lower edge of the base and reversely to form athick butt edge, the lower edge of the strip shingle being upwardlynotched at intervals; lboth the metal sheath and the base being notched,and the metal and base being indented above.` each notch and theindentations extending into said base a distance mulch less than thethi-ckness of said base, said indentation being darkened in color tosimulate the edges of adjacent individual shingles, said notches servingto break up the continuity of the shadow line at the thick lower edge ofthe strip.

2. A strip shingle as defined in claim 1, in which the metal at thenotch is slit and bent around the edge of the base in the notch toenclose the'top edge of the notch.

3. A strip shingle as defined in claim 1, in which there is means on theshingle to hold down the lower portion of the next higher strip shinglein order to resist wind lift.

4. A strip shingle as defined in claim 3, in which the means to resistwind lift comprises a strip of self-sealing adhesive extendinglongitudinally of the strip at about the upper edge of the metal sheath.

5. A strip shingle as defined in claim 3, in which the means to resistwind lift comprises the reversely bent lower edge of the metal sheathacting as a hook, and the upper edge of the metal sheath which isreversely folded downwardly to act as a lip which receives the hook.

6. A strip shingle as defined in claim 3, in which the means to resistwind lift comprises the reversely bent flower edge of the metal sheathacting as a hook, and the upper edge of the metal sheath which isreversely folded downwardly to act as a lip which receives the hook, andin which tabs of metal are excised behind the lip and turned upward toact as nailing tabs to receive nails located above the lip.

7. A strip shingle as defined in claim 1 in which the base is asaturated felt and asphalt composition base, and is about three feetlong and one foot wide, and in which the sheath is made of aluminumhaving a coating of desired color, and in which the lower edge of thefelt and asphalt composition base is substantially as thick as the buttedge of the shingle, and is about one-quarter inch thick, and in whichthe upper edge of the base is about one-sixteenth inch thick.

8. A strip shingle as defined in claim 7, in which the metal at thenotch is slit and bent around the edge of the base in the notch toenclose the top edge of the notch.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,609,127 11/1926 Rachlin 52--5311,638,746 8/1927 Robinson 52-556 1,666,755 4/1928 Rahr 52--556 2,626,5771/1953 Roush 52-531 X 3,190,040 6/1965 Theobald 52-420 X 3,237,3613/1966 Norman 52--556 X 3,282,009 11/ 1966 Chalmers 52-531 3,312,0314/1967 Berg 52-316 X 1,053,792 2/1913 Dietz 52--560 1,584,343 5/1926Abraham 52-557 2,120,278 6/1938 Guiterman 52--554 XR 3,137,972 6/1964Ekholm et al. 52.-420

FRANK ABBOTT, Primary Examiner.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Examiner.

P. C. FAW, M. O. WARNECKE, Assistant Examiners.

